<Field of the Invention>
The present invention relates to an exterior member that is formed to have a tubular shape in order to accommodate and protect a conduction path, a wire harness that includes the exterior member, and a manufacturing method of the exterior member.
<Description of Related Art>
For example, as an example of a high-voltage wire harness, the patent document 1 below discloses a wire harness for electrically connecting high-voltage devices to each other, the high-voltage devices being built into a hybrid automobile or an electric automobile. The wire harness in the patent document 1 has been invented by the applicant of the present application and is configured to include one conduction path or a plurality of conduction paths, and a tubular exterior member that protects the one conduction path or the plurality of conduction paths with the one conduction path or the plurality of conduction paths being inserted therein. The conduction path is configured to have a shielding function. Specifically, the conduction path is configured such that a shield member such as a braid is disposed inside or outside a sheath. The exterior member includes a flexible tube portion that is flexible and a straight tube portion for linearly routing the conduction path. According to the patent document 1, the exterior member is manufactured as follows.
In FIG. 20, an extrusion molding machine 102 that is a manufacturing apparatus for resin molding of an exterior member 101 is configured to include a resin extruding unit 103, a molding unit 104 that is disposed on the downstream side of the resin extruding unit 103, and a cooling unit and a cutting unit (not shown) that are disposed on the downstream side of the molding unit 104. The resin extruding unit 103 is configured to include a hopper 105 as a unit into which resin material is inserted, an extruding unit main body 106 that continuously extends from the hopper 105 and extends in a horizontal direction, and a nozzle portion 107 that protrudes from an end portion of the extruding unit main body 106. The nozzle portion 107 includes a resin material extrusion port and the resin material extrusion port is disposed inside an inlet of the molding unit 104.
In FIGS. 20 and 21, the molding unit 104 has a configuration in which resin molding can be linearly performed over an area from the inlet to an outlet. Specifically, the molding unit includes approximately caterpillar-shaped mold constituting portions 108. A pair of mold constituting portions 108 is disposed such that the mold constituting portions 108 are positioned on both sides of flexible resin material 109 (the resin material) extruded from the resin material extrusion port of the nozzle portion 107. The pair of mold constituting portions 108 is configured to be capable of forming the resin material 109 into a predetermined shape. Following is more detailed description of the mold constituting portion 108. The mold constituting portion 108 is configured to include a pair of timing pulleys 110 that extend in an extrusion direction of the resin material 109, an endless belt (not shown) that is moved by the pair of timing pulleys 110 in directions denoted by arrows in the drawing, and a mold block aggregate 111 that moves being attached to the endless belt.
The mold block aggregate 111 includes a plurality of mold blocks 112. The mold blocks 112 are arranged with no gap therebetween in a straight portion of the endless belt and is moved by the endless belt. In an area inside the mold blocks 112 being arranged with no gap therebetween, the resin material 109 is pressed toward a gap between molds due to air pressure generated by an air ball 113. When mold opening of the mold blocks 112 is performed, each portion of the exterior member 101 formed into the predetermined shape is extruded toward the downstream side.
Meanwhile, FIG. 20B illustrates a portion of the exterior member 101 that corresponds to a flexible tube portion 114. The flexible tube portion 114 is a flexible portion and is formed into a bellows tube-like shape. Specifically, the flexible tube portion 114 includes bellows recess portions 115 and bellow projection portions 116 that extend in a circumferential direction around a tube axis and the flexible tube portion 114 is formed such that the bellows recess portions 115 and the bellows projection portions 116 are alternately and continuously arranged in a tube axis direction.
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-2014-143894
A related art has a problem of high manufacturing cost since the extrusion molding machine 102 is used for resin molding of the exterior member 101 and the molding unit 104 of the extrusion molding machine 102 includes a lot of constituent members. In addition, the related art has a problem that the manufacturing cost of the conduction path increases by the cost of the shield member since the conduction path has the shielding function.
In recent years, it is desired that a flexible tube portion of an exterior member is more likely to be bent.